BUENOS AIRES HERALD 
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1921 
UNKNOWN SOUTH 
ADVENTURES. 
On December 3, 1903, Buenos Aires 
gave an enthusiastic—no!, -enthu¬ 
siastic does not quite describe it— 
the capital was almost delirious in its 
welcome to a small party of men just 
rescued from the dreary ice-bound 
Antarctic. The leader of that intrepid 
band, Dr. Otto Nordenskjold, Profes¬ 
sor at the University of Gothenburg, 
is again in our midst, this time also 
on the successful termination of a 
scientific mission that took the party 
of scientists, of which he was the 
head, into the wilds of- Peru, and later 
to the uncharted channels of Patago¬ 
nia. A few days ago Professor Nor¬ 
denskjold entered Argentina in a 
manner more in accordance with his 
character—quiet and unostentatious, 
and, to the general public, unherald¬ 
ed. For the celebrated explorer and 
scientist is the most modest of men, 
a man who speaks of strange places, 
great distances, privations, and diffi¬ 
culties, as if it all were nothing out 
of the ordinary, and scarcely worth 
the mentioning. One would never 
guess on hearing him speak that this 
unassuming gentleman is of world¬ 
wide reputation. 
Yesterday, a Ilmur/D representative 
was courteously received by Profes¬ 
sor Nordenskjold, and accorded an 
interview. Said the celebrated tra¬ 
veller: “Our Mission was in the na¬ 
ture of a private expedition, financed 
by scientific societies of Sweden, and 
had for its object the exploration and 
the study of an almost unknown re¬ 
gion in the interior of Peru, and the 
lesser-known and uncharted channels 
of Patagonia. We left Gothenburg in 
June of last year, going direct lo 
Peru, where we were well-received 
by the Government, who gave us 
every assistance in our project. No 
time was lost In organising the expe¬ 
dition, the party being composed of 
Mr. Allan Backman, geographer; Cap¬ 
tain Pallin, of the Swedish Navy, car¬ 
tographer; Count Rosen, zoologist; 
several Peruvian scientists, a milita¬ 
ry guard, and Indian porters. We left 
Lima, travelling by rail as far as pos¬ 
sible. Then we struck due East to 
the sierra, where observations were 
taken at high altitudes; crossing the 
Cordillera we came into a practically 
unknown, and unmapped region 
peopled with hostile and dangerous 
Indians, by whom, thanks to the mi¬ 
litary guard which accompanied us, 
we were not molested. Of this zone 
exhaustive studies were made of the 
topography, fauna, flora, and atmos¬ 
pheric conditions, and the mineral 
richness of the region noted. Records 
were kept of temperature, barometric 
pressure, direction of winds, etc. By 
means of rafts, constructed bv the 
Indian porters, we worked our way 
along the Perene River, an affluent 
of the Amazon, travelling being ra¬ 
ther difficult owing to the many dan¬ 
gerous rapids encountered. After a 
wide detour to the South, we even¬ 
tually reached Lima after an absence j 
of several months, in which very sa¬ 
tisfactory results were obtained. 
In November, our work in Peru 
having concluded, we left for Chile 
to commence the second stage of our 
task—-the exploration and study of 
the lesser-known channels of Patago¬ 
nia. a region as yet unmapped. After 
la short stay in Santiago, the Yaficz, 
a small Chilean Government vessel,I 
was placed at the disposal of the ex-1 
pedition by the. authorities, and the 
party left for the tiny port of Pedro 
Month, Patagonia; here we remained, 
alter arrangements had been made 
to bring us back, some eight weeks! 
later. Many of the Patagonian ehan-l 
nels were explored, and studies made I 
of the topography, climate, geology,I 
Indian life, etc. Two glaciers werel 
visited, the larger, by name San Ta*| 
deo, the greatest in South America,! 
having an approximate width of ten I 
kilometres. The thickly-wooded cha¬ 
racter of this region, and the frequent I 
and violent storms, make exploration 
and observation rather difficult, and 
as the time at our disposal was 11-1 
mited, we could not, much as I wish-1 
ed, get very far inland. Excursions 
to other points were made, and much 
valuable data collected before we re¬ 
turned to Pedro Montt, en route to 
Santiago and Europe,’* 
In answer to a request for some e- 
tails of his memorable trip the South, 
Professor Nordenskjold said: “There 
is very litle to relate. At the end of 
the “nineties”, we left Argenti-1 
na for Tierra del Fuego, being con-| 
veyed to 65° South, in an Argentine 
Government boat kindly placed at our I 
disposal. Lieutenant Jose M. Sobral, 
as he then was, accompanied the par- 1 
ty at the request of the Government. 
On the voyage dow.n, arrangements 
were made for a relief expedition to | 
come in search of our party, if we had 
not returned within a stated time. 
As we had not returned in the arran-1 
ged period an expedition was sent to 
seek us in the summer of 1902, but 
owing to the terrible weather encoun¬ 
tered the relief vessel, was lost, and it [ 
was not until November of .1902, that 
we were rescued, some delay being 
caused owing to tlie fact search had | 
to bo made for members of the party 
who were on various other islands”. 
An inquiry as to the exteat of the I 
stores of the party, when they were 
finally round, elicited the following 
reply: “The stores”— yes these were 
very low, we had to live on seals and 
penguins— one can live a long time 
on seals and penguins”. Professor! 
Nordenskjold added that he owed a! 
debt of gratitude to tlie Argentine na¬ 
tion and its Government for the ipva-| 
luable assistance given on this memo¬ 
rable expedition, and for never-failing) 
courtesy. 
Dr. Nordenskjold, in addition to his I 
latest mission, was the leader of scien¬ 
tific expeditions to Tierra del Fuego, 
1895-97; Alaska and Yukon, 1898; the 
Antarctic regions, 1901-04; West 
Greenland, 1909; and also minor mis¬ 
sions to Spitzbergen and Iceland, He 
is Honorary Corresponding Member 
of the Royal Geographical Society,) 
London; & hon: member of the Geo¬ 
graphical Societies of Berlin, Vienna,I 
Pwome, Amsterdam, Budapest; Madrid| 
and others. His publications include; 
Ant art ic a, The Swedish Antarctic Ex¬ 
pedition, 1901-4 (in 7 languages); Diel 
Polarwelt (Swedish, German, French,| 
Russia); and La Terre de Feu. 
RECEPTION BY PRESIDENT. 
Dr. Otto Nordenskjold was received! 
by the President of the Republic yes¬ 
terday afternoon, having been intro-1 
duced by the Swedish Minister. The 
famous explorer, who leaves for Swe¬ 
den on Saturday, was the guest of the 
Scandinavian Club at a banquet given | 
in the Plaza Hotel last night. 
